FAQ

Video Tutorial

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Is there a limit to how many apps I can create ?

A. No, you should be able to create as many apps as you like using this plugin. You may need to create a different Facebook App ID for different apps depending on how you have setup and how you are using your apps.

Q. How long do I get updates for using my license ?

A. Your license enables you to lifetime updates and each license is charged on a per site basis.

Q. How do I get my Facebook Apps working for mobile devices ?

A. When you have apps that need to be delivered with links in your marketing, that’s when you use the mobile friendly links. Mobile friendly links check what type of device the visitor is using and then sends them to the correct page that’s best viewed for their device.

Q. How to set up a Facebook App ?

A. Use this step by step guide for all types of Facebook Apps that you plan to create

If you plan on using conversion and goal tracking then set the Facebook Standard Event that suits your needs (for more info see FAQ below).

Add your content in the editor area, you can use media, shortcodes or whatever you like and click the publish button.

Click back to the Facebook All Apps admin page and click the Add to Page button in for the app you want to add the new tab to

A new window will pop open in Facebook and ask you to select the Facebook Page you want to add the app to, select one and click Add to Page.

Finally, you’ll be redirected back to your app, after this the app has been added to your fan page and you can see it if you visit your fan page on Facebook.

Q. How to set up a mobile friendly link:

A. If you are sharing links directly to your app as opposed to just being visible on your page then you need to set up a mobile friendly link. To do this follow the steps below.

Click Mobile Friendly Links in the submenu of the Facebook Apps plugin from the admin area

Click the Add New Mobile Friendly Link button

Now it’s time to add a few small settings to make your mobile friendly link work correctly, enter a title (for your own reference)

Select the Facebook App that you are setting the link up for from the dropdown menu

Lastly enter your Facebook Pages Username. Your pages username will be the custom url that you use for your page. ie. If your fan page url is www.facebook.com/yourfanpage then your username would be just ‘yourfanpage’ (without quotation marks). Once entered click the publish button.

To copy your newly created link, click the Mobile Friendly Links menu item again. Once the page loads you can see a list of all of your mobile friendly links and if you have followed all of the steps above then you will see a blue button next to your link called ‘Copy Link’. Click the copy link button and then you can paste the url whereever you like.

Q. I’ve tried to make a mini site but my links will not work when I click them inside my app on Facebook ?

A. This happens when you do not link to secure pages, please ensure that you have linked to a https:// url, not http://.

Q. My fan page tab is displaying a privacy error ?

A. You must install a SSL Certificate to your webserver for this to work. In terms of installing SSL certificates you will need to discuss that with your website developer or webhosting company. We’ve hunted the internet for cheap SSL certificates for this purpose in the past and one of the cheaper options we’ve found that works nicely would be a Rapid SSL ($25 per year) and it can be bought here.

Q. How do I add my app as a tab to my fan page on Facebook ?

A. You first ensure that you have added your Facebook App ID to the App Edit page. Once this has been completed then an Add to Facebook button will appear on the All Facebook Apps page

Q. Why do I see the error API Error Code: 191 when I try to add to Facebook ?

A. This would be because you have not set the correct App Domain field or Facebook App ID inside your Facebook App at developers.facebook.com. To fix this head to your app settings page on the Facebook Developers website (under My Apps) and ensure that you have both the correct Facebook App ID and also that your App Domain is the version of your domain without http://www. (ie. domain.com).

Q. Do I need to create a Facebook App ID ?

A. Yes you must create a Facebook App ID for this plugin to work for you.

Q. Do I need to publicly list my Facebook App ?

A. You do need to make your app live (in the App Review section), however, No you do not need to make your app publicly listed in the app center but there is nothing stopping you from publicly listing it as well if you have a great idea that you want accessible to all pages and profiles.

Q. How do I create a Facebook App ID ?

A. You must head over to developers.facebook.com and activate your Facebook Developer account firstly. Once you have enabled your account you click My Apps > Add New App. It will prompt you for an app name, email and category – set the category to Apps for Pages. After you click the Create App ID button you will head to another page with a menu on the left, choose Settings. On the settings page you will need to fill in a few fields here. Firstly your App Domain needs to be the version of your domain without http://www. (ie. domain.com), set your namespace to something unique that resembles your app (with no spaces). Next hit the Add Platform button and choose Page Tab. In the new Page Tab settings box add your secure https version for the url of your app in the Secure URL field. Create a name for the Tab and you can leave the edit field empty. Hit Save changes and put your App’s Facebook App ID field in WordPress. Note that sometimes you need to wait a few minutes before your app id is working across Facebook. Read more about creating Facebook App IDs.

Q. I can see my app but no one else or other users can see my Facebook page tab ?

A. You need to also make the app live. To do this once you are in your app’s settings at developers.facebook.com then click App Review from the left menu. Once the App Review page loads, make the app live by enabling it just under the heading that says Make App Public. Once it’s enabled all users will be able to use your page tab on Facebook.

Q. How do I find my exisiting Facebook App ID ?

A. You can return to find your app id in developers.facebook.com at any time by clicking My Apps > See All Apps. Once you find your app click into it, on your app’s dashboard click settings from the left hand menu.

Q. Do I need to enter a Facebook Pixel ID ?

A. No you do not need one, however, it’s highly recommended you do if you use Facebook Ads or plan to in the future. The reason why you would enter one is so that you can track customers that see your Facebook App so that you can create a custom Audience to target them in your ads. Facebook Pixels can also be used to track which ads converted a goal or sale using standard events via your app.

Q. How do I create or find my Facebook Pixel ID ?

A. To find your Facebook ID open (or create) your ads account. Once you have loaded the desired ads account that you want to link your Facebook App to, click the 3 bar menu at the top left, select All Tools > Pixels (under Assets). If you already have a pixel then on the pixel page click Actions > Edit Pixel and a box will popup with your pixel id. If you are creating a pixel for the first time select Copy and Paste Pixel Code, then paste the code snippet into a text editor. Once you have pasted the code in text away from Facebook you can find the line of code that says “fbq(‘init’, ‘0000000000000000’); // Insert your pixel ID here.”, the part where all the 0’s are in this sample is your pixel id, copy all of the numbers without quotation marks or any other part of the code and paste it into the Facebook Pixel ID field. In this sample the Facebook Pixel ID entered would be 0000000000000000 but your’s would be whatever number Facebook generates for you. Read more about creating Facebook Pixel IDs

Q. Do I need a Google Analytics UA key ?

A. Using Google Analytics for your Facebook App is optional, however, it allows you to understand how your app is being used by visitors. For those of you who already have Google Analytics conencted via a plugin or theme then you most likely will not need to do anything else to have Google Analytics enabled. You can use multiple Google Analytics UA’s on different apps if you find a reason to split the UA code across different accounts.

Q. How do I create or find my Google Analytics UA key ?

A. To create a new Google Analytics UA key head over to www.google.com/analytics and login with your Google Account. Once you are signed in click Admin at the bottom left of the page. Once on the Google Analytics Admin screen, for those who have not got an account already you will be walked through the process of creating your first account and first property (UA key). If you already have an account then choose the account you wish to add a UA key to and select the property dropdown menu > Create New Property. Fill in the 4 Google Analytics fields about your site and click the Get Tracking ID button. On the next screen you will find your new UA key that you can copy and paste into your Facebook App’s settings in WordPress.

Q. Do I need a Facebook Standard Event and how do I use them ?

A. Facebook Standard Events are optional and only apply to those who are using Facebook Ads. When ads are created they can be tracked using their Facebook Pixel ID combined with Standard Events. Standard Events represent specific goal tracking for your ads. For instance, you may have a competition running for users to subscribe to enter called ‘Facebook Competition’ and when they enter using the app they are redirected to a 2nd Facebook App called ‘Thank You’, in this example the Facebook Competition page may be a View Content Standard Event (or event a Lead) and the Thank You app page would be a Complete Registration standard event. Once set up correctly, Facebook Ads’ reporting would then allow you to track exactly which Facebook Ads performed the best and secured the most goals (or subscriptions), this obviously will give you the tools to decide which ads are actually working rather than using guesswork. Don’t forget that for this to work after you’ve set it up, you must click ‘Track all pixels’ during your Facebook Ad Creation process.

Q. How can I target a Facebook Ad to anyone who visits my app ?

A. You can target Facebook Ads to anyone who visits your Facebook App if you have your Facebook Pixel ID set up, this type of ad is called Remarketing Ads and they are extremely effective. If you are serious about Facebook Ads then you need to be using this feature. Once you have set up your Facebook Pixel ID you use your ads account menu to head to All Tools > Audiences (under the Assets column). Once you are in the Audiences page click Create Audience > Custom Audience. In the next popup box click Website Traffic, the next box will ask for your audience conditions, if you are new to this you can keep it to ‘Anyone who visits your website’ whilst you learn the ropes, type your domain and select it when it appears (if it does not appear you must visit your Facebook Pixel activated app first) and finally set in the last to 180 days unless you have a specifc reason not to do so. Create the audience and then you’ll be able to choose this audience when creating your Facebook Ads by typing the audience name in the Custom Audience targetting box during ads creation. Read more about creating Facebook remarketing custom audiences.

A. Yes you can do this, you just need to keep the same Facebook App ID as your main page app page. If you are handy with code you can put in a custom nav menu and design it however you desire. Just an important note on this though, you cannot link to just any page on your’s or external blog websites otherwise it will not work correctly inside Facebook, instead you must always link to another Facebook App page that you have created using our app.

Q. Can I customise the design and layout of my Facebook Apps using theme templates ?

A. Yes, there are a few ways to do this but it’s best suited to someone who has a basic understanding of HTML, PHP and CSS at minimum. There are 2 methods towards changing the template design and appearance, the first & easiest way is by just using your themes’ style.css file and changing the appearace via css. However, if you’re looking to take your app to the next level then the more flexible way of doing this is to copy our single-fb_apps.php file from our plugin’s template folder and pasting it into your theme’s folder, it’s bad practice to overwrite the file inside our plugin folder because it will be overwritten later when the plugin is upgraded and you can already use it in your own theme folder to keep things organised. Once you have the template in the root of your theme’s folder then you can customise as much as you desire. Important noteas for template editing, you will need to keep the femp_fb_apps_body() function directly underneath the body tag in order for your Facebook App to work correctly, also, please leave the class=”fb_app_live” on the html and body otherwise you will have issues with preview mode. Read more about customising WordPress templates.

Q. Can I customise different design and layout changes to each of my Facebook Apps individual using theme templates ?

A. Yes you definitely can, our template is based on the WordPress Hierachy structure so you if you want to make specific changes to only one of your Facebook Apps then you copy our template into our theme and rename it to single-fb_apps-postslug.php and replace postslug with your slug/permalink. Read more about customising WordPress templates.

Q. I’ve added a plugin or theme functionality that now doesn’t display correctly in the Facebook ?

A. There could a whole range of reasons if this is happening to you, the most common scenario where this would happen is due to missing css classes that would otherwise be in your page templates or if your functionality relies on the a body or html class. We’ve removed the body and html css classes in order to keep a cleaner approach to comply with Facebook’s look and feel, if either of this common issues are happening to you then we recommend you create a custom template using the instructions in this FAQ.

Q. Can I extend the functionality of my Facebook App using my functions.php file or via my own custom plugin ?

A. This is a more advanced feature of our plugin and the answer is yes you can. We’ve created our plugin in a way where you can overwrite any of our functions, note that if you do overwrite our functions you must include the hook yourself as well. Any further further custom implementation we would guide you towards the WordPress Codex.

Q. Have you customised your app into something cool and unique ?

A. That’s great and makes us happy ! If you believe your app is seriously next level in the sense that it’s professionally designed better than most apps out there or you’ve enhanced your app with unique functinality then we’d like you to send us a link so that we can check out your creative implementation and help share it with the world by featuring it in our showcase of best Facebook Apps !